Is unbaked bread dough dangerous

[ruthb]

Hi everyone - now this is probably a lighter post than I usually see on here, but I thought that if anyone was going to be able to help me then it would be a bunch of Waldorf mommas.

I'm at home with my 20 month girl and I bake all our bread.  Now, I usually do the kneading etc while she's either napping or heavily engaged in something else.  But recently I thought that I'd like to start to do it together in the way that we do most other things.  Also, I think she's at an age where the feel of the dough might be quite interesting.  So, twice now we've started to bake and it has gone really well - I've got this big bowl and we're in there mixing the stuff up, feeling all the grains, having a great time.  And then I give her a piece of dough (quite a chunk) and I begin to knead.  And she, well, she eats it.

I say let's not, I show her how it stretches, I put more flour on her spot, I repeat all these and get more and more insistent.  And she just keeps tearing bits off and eating them and it's like it's not even defiance she just doesn't get what I'm saying.  I think she quite likes the taste! urgggh!  Also, she knows we are making bread and she points to it and says "bread" and so I think she thinks she must be able to eat, even though I'm going kinda loopy at how much dough she's eating, until in the end I put her down from the counter and put her steps away and tell her to go do something else (as I now have quite a lot of dough waiting to be kneaded). 

Soooo, how do I move forward?  Do I stop trying to involve her in baking for a while and come back to it later?  Do I just repeat the above and acknowledge that I might have to call time on her involvement if she won't stop eating the dough?  Do I let her eat the dough and not saying anything (if so, how much is ok??)?

Help me out here!

R

[tbone_kneegrabber]

Ds (4.75 years old) always eats bread dough when we bake.  My 30 year old housemates always eat bread dough when they bake.  I don't see why it would be a problem.  If your recipe has eggs in it, there is the salmonella "risk" but frankly I couldn't go on with life if I didn't get to eat raw cookie dough occasionally.  Worse thing that might happen is a bit of a stomach ache I would think.

[SimonMom]

my kids have always eaten bread dough! i see no problem with it at all. i've never thought twice about it. 

[ruthb]

Thanks guys - I feel a lot more relaxed about it now, happy baking!

[onyxravnos]

Yep i agree too. Keep on trucking on :) sounds like she's enjoying it. Just as long as she's not eating so much you don't have any left over to actually bake bread ;)

[mamazee]

As long as there is no gluten sensitivity or anything like that, there is no danger. Let her eat it. And have fun cooking with her!

[MrsGregory]

I ate raw bread dough as a child.  It really appealed to me.  It does still, on occasion, but I forbear out of some (misguided, no doubt) sense of adult decorum.

(I also ate raw red meat as a child, but I don't want to scare you off the the bread dough, which is probably much more harmless raw than the meat.)